"But I bet that the morning, in the morning, we'll find us in bloom…"

Columbus Marathon Training – Week Four

A whole month of training is in the books. Four weeks in and I’m feeling pretty good. This past week felt like a whirl-wind. My in-laws were in town on Monday (and had been all weekend) for July 4th. Then on Wednesday I didn’t feel well in the morning and stayed home from work. I feel like the first week of July didn’t even exist.

Like most everywhere it has been pretty hot here. At the end of the week the temps were in the mid 70s by 4:30 in the morning. I did a lot of sports-bra running last week. I adjusted to running 30 seconds slower Thursday and Friday because it was just so darn humid. Saturday morning the humidity broke during our run which made the second half much more pleasant than the first. I’ll still take it over cold weather. Running for an hour or more and still not feeling warm is just the worst, more so than dripping sweat after 5 minutes.

I hit the big 4-0 in mileage this week. My mileage will stay in the 40s for the rest of my training cycle while my intensity gets upped and my Saturday runs get longer. Since I’m feeling good, my coach has told me to up my pace 2-3 times a week by 30 seconds. My legs have been itching to go a little faster so I will happily incorporate that in.

My strength class is going well. I’m continuing to recover a lot quicker from it while still upping my weights on some of the exercises. We don’t do the same exact thing every week, but we do have a few similar movements. We did a team-oriented workout this week and my partner and I got kind of competitive trying to get through it quick. The downside was that once a team was finished they had to do something like a V-sit hold, plank, or squat-hold until the rest of the teams were done. We kept forgetting that part and found ourselves holding these moves for way longer than we wanted.

That’s me in the back left corner, surrendering…

The scary reality of racing a marathon is beginning to sink in. I can go week after week and feel great, but that doesn’t mean anything come race day. There’s also the fact that I will be racing this marathon rather than running this marathon that is so terrifying to me. Even though this is marathon training cycle number two, I am finding that I am enjoying training just as much as I did last time. I am doing very different stuff than cycle number one which may be part of it, but overall I just get a lot of joy out of training for a full marathon. Maybe it’s because I’m not freezing my butt off the whole time I’m training?

Fall is also my favorite time of year so I think training towards a fall goal has me anticipating fall. I am looking forward to college football season to get underway. The trail my training group runs on goes right past Ohio Stadium and on game days there are always plenty of fans making their way to the games via bike or walking on the trail. They add so much energy and positivity to the trail which makes it extra fun.

Anyway, some fun things we did this weekend included going to the art museum (it’s free on Sunday!)

Inflatable Buddha!

And we went to the dog park… where Archie decided to play with the LARGEST dog at the entire park.

Onto week five! I have a busy week ahead so this will be an interesting week, but I’m excited about some things coming up this week.

That’s the approach my husband usually takes. We found when we moved to Columbus there are two choices: embrace it or avoid it. I’ve chosen to embrace it, but that may be because it gives me a reason to be completely lazy for hours after my Saturday long runs!

Thank you! My training has been going well. It’s a nice way to start since my tough stuff really begins at the end of this month. Eek!

Congrats on finishing your first whole month of marathon training! I love fall too, even if it does mean winter is just around the corner 🙂 After running in heat and humidity all summer the feeling of running in crisp, cool fall weather is the best!!

Thank you! Fall weather is really exciting after the summer. Sort of the same way spring weather is exiting after the winter. Usually by the end of fall I’m ready for winter, I’m just over it by February!